This Study Guide consists of approximately 40 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more -
everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!.

Part 1: Always Trying to Escape Summary and Analysis

As an undergraduate, Feyman is only interested in science, but his degree plan requires him to study English literature, as well as two humanities courses. He is pleasantly surprised to find Astronomy listed as a humanities course, but still is required to take another one. He chooses Philosophy.

In English class he has to write a number of critical essays on various works of literature, he usually manages to get out of providing insightful criticism by parodying the work instead, but he finds he is unable to parody Goethe's Faust. A fraternity brother advises him to take a paper he has written on an unrelated topic and draw parallels between that and Faust. The professor more or less falls for it, although he acknowledges the material relating directly to Faust is scanty and...